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October 7th through 9th (Columbus Day) Gualala Sonoma River Campground

Sharks in GA. aquarium eat other exhibits

ATLANTA, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Great hammerhead sharks in the Georgia Aquarium's Ocean Voyager tank have been giving some visitors a peep at natural behavior by eating cownose rays.

The 6.2 million-gallon tank in Atlanta stocked with about 85,000 fish is designed to give a snapshot of life in the ocean. Its inhabitants include four whale sharks -- the world's largest fish -- and smaller specimens like grouper, snapper, the cownose rays and a 7-foot hammerhead.

While aquarium staff discourage predators like the hammerhead from eating their neighbors by hand-feeding them several times a week, they say it is difficult to estimate the food needs and wants of a growing hammerhead, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. A female hammerhead died in the tank, apparently from hitting her head on a rock while in pursuit of prey.

Tim Binder, director of husbandry at the aquarium, said that life in the Ocean Voyager tank involves birth and death just like life in the real ocean, the report said. While the hammerheads are believed to have eaten about 10 rays, a bonnethead shark has given birth and a spider crab laid eggs, while a Pacific octopus died of natural causes.

UK anger over migrants' food fishing

A row has erupted between anglers and migrant workers whoare accused of catching fish and taking them home to eat rather than returning their catch.

Local fishermen claim Eastern Europeans are catching fish illegally in private lakes and rivers without a licence.  Many migrants see carp, perch and roach as part of their diet and struggle to understand the concept of fishing for pleasure without eating what you catch.  Signs in five different languages have nowgone up at lakes in Southampton.

                                                     The signs, in Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, Latvian and     Portuguese, have been put up at Little Testwood Lake and Nutsy Lake in Totton, which are reserved for members of Test Valley Angling Club.

     It states that all fish must be returned to the water alive to ensure stocks are not depleted.

Barbara Storey is Polish and lives in Southampton, which has one of the biggest Polish populations in the country with more than 20,000 Poles living in the city. Ms Storey, who is a translator and runs a helpline for Polish workers, said carp is traditionally eaten at Christmas in her home country. "We fish for eating," she said.  "Most of the people believe that having some water and the opportunity to catch something like fish is mainly to have agood dinner when they go home.

"We believe it's quite cruel to hurt thefish, to cut the fish and then to put this poor little thing back to the water,dying there somewhere lonely.

 - news.bbc

Argh! Passing Pod of Whales Sink Indonesian Boat;

'Those Animals Hit Our Boat"

Jakarta, Indonesia:  A wooden boat carrying a crew of six sunk in Indonesian waters after it was hit by a pod of passing whales, a report said on Wednesday.

The crew were rescued early on Tuesday by passing fishing boats after spending five hours afloat on drums, the ‘Kompas’ daily reported, quoting Jusman, the captain of the ill-fated boat.

He told the daily that the vessel had left the Indonesian portion of Borneo island on Monday bound for South Sulawesi across the Makassar Strait but it crossed paths with the whales several hours later.

"Those animals hit our boat and caused it to leak. Not long afterwards, almost all of the boat filled with water and we finally had to jump overboard and use drums to float on," he was quoted as saying.

Whales periodically travel across the archipelago from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea.

Fears of revenge attacks on stingrays over Irwin death

At least ten stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia’s eastern coast in the last week in what conservationists believe could be revenge attacks for the death of Steve Irwin, the popular naturalist and television personality.

Irwin, known by his fans as the "Crocodile Hunter", was killed last Monday when a stingray barb pierced his chest as he filmed a new TV programme off the Great Barrier Reef. His death triggered an outpouring of grief in Australia and among thousands of admirers worldwide.

But now it is feared that fans' mourning has taken a new focus: stingray rage.

The dead stingrays have been discovered on two beaches in Queensland state, where Mr Irwin lived and ran his popular wildlife park, Australia Zoo. Two of the unfortunate rays, discovered today, were retrieved with their tails lopped off, according to local fishery officials.

Michael Hornby, a friend of Mr Irwin and executive director of his conservation group Wildlife Warriors, said he was concerned that the rays, which are usually docile creatures, were being hunted and killed in retaliation for Irwin's death, which he said, would go against everything that the television star had stood for.

Meanwhile, Irwin's admirers appear also to be using technology to avenge the death of the daredevil star.

A website has created a game called Terri Irwin's Revenge (use your up and down arrows to move her and the "space bar " to fire and Z for Crocbombs) , depicting the naturalist's wife firing at stingrays underwater. The aim of the game, which is being circulated via e-mail, is to kill as many stingrays as possible without getting hit, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

However, the game has been receiving mixed responses from online visitors. "We should make it clear, this game is intended to be a memorial and NOT a funny parody," say its creators, who go by the names of Josh Tuttle, -altr- and Onic.

Stingrays are usually shy, unobtrusive fish that rummage along the sea bottom forfood or burrow into the sand. When stepped on or otherwise frightened, a serrated spine up to 25cm (10 inches) long in the animal’s tail flares up.

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